Two Kinds Of Appearances

Illus: During the Oscars in Hollywood in 2004, the actors and actresses tried to give the impression that they cared about poverty. Listen, if they really cared about the poor as they pretend to care, instead of buying those dresses that some of the actresses paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for, they would have given the money to the poor.

Today, many are giving a false impression. They appear to be one thing and are really something else. Even our children learn how to make a good appearance at an early age. That’s why they want to wear the expensive name-brand clothes.

While many are learning to make a good APPEARANCE, they are not being taught that:

• A person can look like a king and not be a king.

• A person can look like a football player and not be a football player.

• A Person can even look like they love the Lord but not love Him.

Appearances can be deceiving.

Illus: A man met a beautiful young lady at the mall and immediately he asked her for a date. She said, “I’ll tell you what, you come to my apartment and I will fix you a nice meal and we will watch television and eat some pop corn together.”

He said that sounded like a good idea, so he showed up at her home at the appointed time.

She greeted him with a big hug and a kiss at the door. They had a lovely meal together and everything was going great, when he noticed a picture on a table of a man standing by the sofa they were sitting on.:

• He said, “Is that your brother?” She said, “No!”

• He said, “Don’t tell me that is your boy friend.” She said “No!”

• He said, “Don’t tell me it is your husband!” Again, she said, “No!”

She said, “Actually that is a picture of me before I had my sex change operation!” He threw up and went home.

In these days:

• What looks like a woman might be a man

• What looks like a man might be a woman

• What looks like a man or woman might be an “IT!

Illus: In 1884, a young man died, and after the funeral his grieving parents decided to establish a memorial to him. With that in mind they met with Charles Eliot, President of Harvard University. Eliot received the unpretentious couple into his office and asked what he could do. After they expressed their desire to fund a memorial, Eliot impatiently said, "Perhaps you have in mind a scholarship." "We were thinking of something more substantial than that... perhaps a building," the woman replied. In a patronizing tone, Eliot brushed aside the idea as being too expensive and the couple departed. The next year, Eliot learned that this plain pair had gone elsewhere and established a 26 million dollar memorial named “Leland Stanford Junior University”, better known today as Stanford! (Today in the Word, June 11, 1992)

We have people today who think that if they wear a certain brand of clothes, drive a certain kind of a car, or talk a certain way, they can fool everyone. The truth is, you can put a pig in a tuxedo but he is still a pig!

We live in an age when making a good appearance has become everything for some folks.

Ananias and Sapphira would have fit right into this age of ours. In the New Testament church, they tried to appear to love the Lord, BUT THEY DIDN’T!

There were two kinds of Christians in the early church:

• Some were dedicated Christians that loved the Lord so much that they sold their land and gave it unto the Lord. They were everything they appeared to be!

• Some of these were undedicated Christians that did not love the Lord. They sold their land and kept back part of it for themselves! Then they told the church they were giving all! They were NOT everything they appeared to be!

Let’s look at several things in the life of Ananias and Sapphira. We see -

I. THEIR DECEPTION

Christians should be noted for being HONEST and TRUTHFUL! Ananias and Sapphira were neither. They came up with a plan to DECEIVE everyone into thinking they were dedicated Christians that loved the Lord.

Illus: When architect Sir Christopher Wren designed the interior of Windsor Town Hall near London in 1689, he built a ceiling supported by pillars. After city fathers had inspected the finished building, they decided the ceiling would not stay up and ordered Wren to put in some more pillars. England's greatest architect didn't think the ceiling needed any more support, so he pulled a fast one. He added four pillars that did not do anything -- they don't even reach the ceiling. The optical illusion fooled the municipal authorities, and today the four sham pillars amuse many a tourist. - Nino Lo Bello, European Detours (Hammond).